Knitters look to warm cancer patients' bodies, hearts

Aug. 12, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 12:28 p.m.

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Costa Mesa resident Nova Harris measures a tree at The Lab mall in Costa Mesa on Friday. Harris was measuring the tree to fit additional woven yarn onto the branch during the yarn bomb event, in which colorful yarn was strewn across the mall. STUART PALLEY, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A basket filled with woven yarn blankets was brought to the yarn bomb event Friday at The Lab mall in Costa Mesa. In the event, colorful yarn was strewn about the mall and tied around trees. STUART PALLEY, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Christine Fabiani, Knots of Love founder, wraps a yarn blanket around a tree at The Lab mall in Costa Mesa on Friday. STUART PALLEY, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Jake Donello, 9, left, and Brodyn Gruszczynski, 11, right, get an impromptu lesson in knitting from Carolyn Fish during the yarn bomb event at The Lab mall in Costa Mesa on Friday. STUART PALLEY, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Christine Fabiani, founder of Knots of Love, spreads out a 258-inch bolt of hand-knit yarn before it is hung on the entrance sign at The Lab mall Tuesday in Costa Mesa. STUART PALLEY, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Knots of Love founder Christine Fabiani holds a 258-inch bolt of hand-woven yarn before it is hoisted onto The Lab mall's entrance sign Tuesday in Costa Mesa. The yarn is part of the yarn bomb event held Friday, where yarn was wrapped around trees and signs at the mall. STUART PALLEY, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Juan Valdovinos, left, and Miguel Rosete, right, use ladders and a broom to position a 258-inch hand-knit bolt of yarn around The Lab mall's entrance sign Tuesday in Costa Mesa. The yarn is part of the yarn bomb event held Friday, where yarn was wrapped around trees and signs at the mall. STUART PALLEY, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Miguel Rosete fastens a 258-inch hand-knit bolt of yarn onto The Lab mall's entrance sign Tuesday in Costa Mesa. The yarn is part of the yarn bomb event held Friday, where yarn was wrapped around trees and signs at the mall. STUART PALLEY, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Knots of Love founder Christine Fabiani, left, and The Lab employee Miguel Rosete, right, work together to place the finishing touches on a yarn wrap added to the Costa Mesa mall's sign Tuesday. The yarn is part of the yarn bomb event held Friday, where yarn was wrapped around trees and signs at the mall. STUART PALLEY, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Christine Fabiani, founder of Knots of Love, directs the placement of a 258-inch hand-knit bolt of yarn around The Lab's entrance sign Tuesday in Costa Mesa. The yarn is part of the yarn bomb event held Friday, where yarn was wrapped around trees and signs at the mall. STUART PALLEY, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Miguel Rosete finishes hanging a 258-inch bolt of hand-knit yarn around The Lab mall sign Tuesday in Costa Mesa. The yarn is part of the yarn bomb event held Friday, where yarn was wrapped around trees and signs at the mall. STUART PALLEY, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Costa Mesa resident Nova Harris measures a tree at The Lab mall in Costa Mesa on Friday. Harris was measuring the tree to fit additional woven yarn onto the branch during the yarn bomb event, in which colorful yarn was strewn across the mall.STUART PALLEY, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The 66-year-old from Fullerton has spent hours making more than 1,000 handmade caps since getting involved with Knots of Love.

Why? She knows what it's like to see your hair fall out because of chemotherapy.

"I do this for the people who are going through what I experienced," Sirca said.

Sirca is among an estimated 500 volunteer knitters nationwide who makes caps, scarves and blankets for Knots of Love, a nonprofit based in Costa Mesa that benefits cancer patients and others facing life-threatening illnesses.

Last week, Sirca, along with a handful of volunteers, "yarn bombed" The LAB Antimall in Costa Mesa, covering the retail shopping center's trees, trunks and flower pots with rainbows of yarn. The colorful setting was like walking through a garden in "Alice in Wonderland."

On Tuesday, The LAB Antimall sign will be smothered in 258 inches of colorful yarn.

The yarn bombing – a form of street art where knitters decorate objects with yarn or other fabrics – is intended to promote Knots of Love's newest campaign in a colorful way, said Christine Fabiani, the group's founder.

Fabiani said the charity is working on its annual veterans cap drive; the group hopes to send 8,000 caps to Veterans Affairs hospitals across the U.S. by Nov. 11, Veteran's Day.

"Providing caps to our forgotten heroes is a small token of our appreciation while they're fighting cancer," Fabiani said. "By yarn bombing The LAB, we're hoping to make people smile the same way we do when a cancer patient wears one of our caps."

The event also coincides with The LAB's 20th anniversary.

This month, The Lab is hosting Yarn Bombing and Beyond, a series of knitting workshops for the community, said Mary Castillo, a community relations and events guru at The LAB Antimall and another shopping center, The Camp.

"We're calling on the community to donate pieces, garments or knit with us on Friday nights or Wednesday at The Camp," Castillo said.

Castillo said pieces crafted will benefit Project Linus, an organization that donates blankets for critically ill children, and Knots of Love.

A longtime crafter, Fabiani started Knots of Love in 2007 after a friend – a 20-year cancer survivor – saw a cap she made and mentioned how she would have loved a cap during her chemotherapy sessions.

Fabiani said that sparked the idea for the nonprofit.

She said most people focus on or donate to cancer research; sometimes overlooked are the patients who are currently battling cancer and recovering from chemotherapy.

It's very cold inside a treatment room, and a bald head often is seen negatively as a sign of sickness. The caps provide warmth, dignity and a sense of style, she said.

Most importantly, the caps show cancer patients or others suffering from illnesses that they are not alone, she said.

Since its inception, the charity has donated more than 165,000 caps to 467 hospitals nationwide, Fabiani said. Knots of Love recently partnered with a hospital in Pennsylvania to craft and donate blankets for babies in its neonatal intensive care unit.

Fabiani said she's surprised how large Knots of Love has grown, and even more amazed how making one small cap can make such a huge difference in people's lives.

"I knew how much the caps would help cancer patients and give them comfort, warmth and restore their dignity, but I'm very surprised how much it helps the people that make the cap," Fabiani said. "Maybe they lost someone due to cancer and are doing this for their honor. This is their way to give back."

Sirca began volunteering for Knots of Love in 2009.

She is a former teacher and cancer survivor. At 36, she had a double mastectomy and watched her strawberry blonde hair fall out after starting chemotherapy.

"When you start the medication, the hair doesn't gradually fall off," Sirca said. "It happens so suddenly. Your head is so bare. One day it starts raining hair. Losing my hair was more difficult than losing both breasts."

Thirty years ago, there were no caps to wear. She covered her head in turbans, scarves or wigs.

She was alone, battling the disease.

"I have wonderful support around me, but cancer is the loneliest thing I have ever done," Sirca said.

So every day she sits down and spends hours making at least two or three caps.

Crocheting a cap takes an hour and a half, but she prefers to knit – a six-hour process – because it's a better look, she said.

Sirca prays and blesses each cap she makes. She wants whoever receives it to know someone out there cares.

"I pray that it provides them comfort, warmth and a feeling of being special," Sirca said. "I hope that people will tolerate the treatment, be healed and comfortable and not in pain, be warm and safe and not afraid."

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